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July 31, 2007
Bancrofts relent, $5 billion, go Rupert--and just whoa.
Dow Jones-WSJ deal just about done, according to the Associated Press. We've followed this because it's important world business news: Murdoch's News Corp. already owns Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel, The Times in the United Kingdom, the New York Post, the Twentieth Century Fox movie and TV studios, and MySpace. Also, Hull family worries WAC? may be next target.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Germany honors Zappa: "Help! I'm a Berlin street."
Speaking of sound international lawyering, remember the 1960s song "Help! I'm a Rock"? How about "America Drinks and Goes Home" or a profoundly disturbed girl named Suzy Creamcheese. OK, so you're a lawyer who never listened to subversive songs about American sameness and mediocrity, or you're under 40, and missed the fun. Anyway, the Berlin-based Atlantic Review, written by two German Fulbright alums, and WAC?'s Berlin hero Hermann the German, who's just king-hell nuts, both confirm that Berlin finally has a Frank Zappa Street, in the Marzahn-Hellersdorf borough. "Man it's a drag bein' a rock/I think I'd rather be the mayor." Guess you had to be there.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Boston-New Haven-NYC... Blawg Review #119
David Lat, the AUSA turned incredibly popular uber-blogger--and a guy who's possibly lived in more American cities (five that we know of so far) than D.C. lawyer turned vagabond WAC?--hosts this week's Blawg Review at Above the Law. This week's theme is complaining: "Indeed, many attorneys are better at complaining than they are at doing their jobs." Quite right, and it shows.
Posted by Tom Welshonce at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Blogs changing our profession?
See Bill Gratsch's post at Blawg's Blog, "Blogs, Law School Rankings, and the Race to the Bottom", discussing and linking to an article with the same title by Jay Brown of the University of Denver's law school.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)
July 30, 2007
Happy 5th Birthday, Sarbanes-Oxley, you big brute.
It's been five years now; it was signed into law by President Bush on July 30, 2002. Major, sweeping and unprecedented, the business media said. True, no desirable corporate client can ignore it. And SOX changed public accounting forever. So how we doing? At London-based The Economist, reportedly the favorite magazine of Bill Gates these days, see "Sarbanes-Oxley: Five Years Under the Thumb".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
BlawgWorld 2007
Ladies and Gents of the Blawgosphere: WAC? is extremely happy to join in on announcing today's release of BlawgWorld 2007. For those of you new to BlawgWorld, TechnoLawyer/Peerviews Inc. have put together 77 exemplary posts and essays by 77 blawgers into one e-book. WAC? is honored to be included in this incredible group of blawgers.
Last year's edition of BlawgWorld was downloaded 45,000+ times. This year's edition, which also includes the 2007 TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide, will certainly surpass that.
The best part: you can download BlawgWorld 2007 for no charge at this link. Make sure you do that. This is a wonderful e-book you cannot afford to miss.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2007
Got Jury Wonks?
Jury selection: part science, part art form, always difficult. But nervous fun for those with true grit. Do see Anne Reed's fine Deliberations, launched in February and focusing on "Law, news, and thoughts on juries and jury trials".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2007
Most of U.S. media misses another award to 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Americans shallow? C'mon. Lindsay Lohan got trashed again, the shopping malls are all open, Wales is probably in Europe somewhere, and a college degree will still get you a job at an insurance company or the local utility for the next 35 years. What the hell else do we need to know? Well, maybe this: see an article by Newsweek's Jonathan
Alter on the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner who helped expand the world's food supply, "He Only Saved a Billion People". President Bush and Congress just held the ceremony to award American agronomist Norman Borlaug, 93, the Congressional Gold Medal. That award itself was announced 8 months ago. The WSJ noticed--but no one but Alter did this justice:
Only five people in history have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal: Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel ... and Norman Borlaug.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2007
Chris Abraham: "Blogosphere is a marathon, not a sprint."
From time to time we at Hull McGuire and WAC?--having no real agenda except to do interesting legal work for the best clients all over the world and get real rich doing it--have asked: "Is blogging really important?" And: "Does blogging 'work'?"
Importantly, we also have wondered: "Why is Keith Richards still alive?" and "Why does the Moon follow us when we drive?". Ever thought about that?
Anyway, getting back to blogging and blawging, DC-based blogging
pioneer Chris Abraham is WAC?'s friend, mentor, uber-advisor, and a serious Renaissance man. He and a wise telecom lawyer named Del Bianco got us to start WAC? two years ago. So we read Chris's blog more often than he may realize.
Chris is also not a lawyer, and therefore frequently makes sense. At his site Because the Medium is the Message, a recent post asks "Is Blogging Starting to Fade?". See his answer. Blawging pioneer-proponent and trial lawyer Kevin O'Keefe, who we also admire, should like this one.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2007
Blawg Review #118
Barry Barnett at Blawgletter (business trial law with a sense of humor) has this week's Blawg Review (a.k.a. the "Funny Blawg Review"). Make sure you check out this edition of BR, which is, according to our notes, the second in a row by a Texan. You won't be disappointed.
Posted by Tom Welshonce at 06:01 AM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2007
China suppliers: So, Yank dudes, just sue us...
At Rich Kuslan's enduring Asia Business Intelligence, see "What Happens When Your Chinese Supplier Says: Sure, Go Ahead, Sue Me!", inspired by Prof. Donald Clarke's 2004 piece on enforcement of US judgments in China--which, by the way, happens rarely if ever. The Chinese take a dim view of default ajudications from a non-Chinese jurisdiction. If you must sue, sue in China--and even then plan on serious headaches. Thanks to our friend Dan Harris at China Law Blog, who chimes in, and opines, for flagging Kuslan's post and an issue which hits a raw and painful nerve with lots of Western clients doing business in China. There are, as both Kuslan and Harris point out, preventative steps you can take to protect your investment, e.g. letters of credit and arbitration provisions. But there's an overall teaching here: don't do business in China because everyone else does it or because the business media talks about it constantly. China is not Kansas, DC or southern Manhattan. Engage ultra-competent, experienced and aggressive help first.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2007
Rule Four: "Deliver legal services that change the way clients think about lawyers".
It's summer: a season to step back from the canvas and a time, if you will, for simple tool sharpening--and we at WAC? are simple tools, if nothing else. From our world famous counter-intuitive 12 Rules of Client Service, see "Rule Four: Deliver legal services that change the way clients think about lawyers".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Tom Collins: Free Man in Paris
The man who writes More Partner Income, one of the best blogs for lawyers and business people, gets around. And he's been strolling around in the heart of Paris--WAC?'s favorite city, a place of ideas, definitions and possibilities for over 2000 years--getting the juices flowing. Apparently these trips work for Tom. Read his blog. And this.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
London v. Moscow--2nd inning, tie game
Russia Expels Four U.K. Diplomats in Spy Dispute:
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia said Thursday it will expel four British diplomats and suspend counterterrorism cooperation with London, the latest move in a mounting confrontation over the radiation poisoning death of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko.
Britain had announced Monday the expulsion of four Russian diplomats and restrictions on visas issued to Russian government officials after Moscow refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, accused of killing Litvinenko in London last November.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2007
Thoughtful Canada Gets It?
Since starting this blog less than two years ago, WAC? has feared that, for most lawyers worldwide, "client service" and "law practice management" are at best a couple of empty soundbytes we all feed our clients, client prospects and employees. It all sounds good; it's become our routine requisite rubbish for websites and ad campaigns. But ever since I discovered CBA PracticeLink--which seems to feature "Clients" as the main event of lawyering--I've wondered if Canadians see these topics differently.
Well, maybe WAC? was right. Canadian lawyer David J. Bilinsky, who straddles Canada and its mild-mannered southern neighbor, is Practice Management Advisor of the Law Society of British Columbia, Editor-in-Chief of the ABA's Law Practice Magazine and former chair of ABA TECHSHOW. David has a new blog, and it promises to be another quality Canadian (okay, Canadian-American) site: Thoughtful Legal Management. Watch this one.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)
Congress: New Slack City
The AP reports that "Senate Pulls All-Nighter On Iraq". It sounds sillier than anyone expected. And what pansies. In olden days (circa 96th and 97th Cong.), when WAC? worked for Congress during those pointless posturing all-nighters, we (a) stayed up for 4 or 5 nights in a row with no cots, (b) ate nothing but the cheapest pharmaceutical "Crank", and (c) drank only coffee, whiskey, beer from the Tune Inn and Jolt cola, all out of dirty Mason jars. Spartan. Tireless. And just as lame.
Posted by JD Hull at 03:52 AM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2007
News Corp. nearing deal with Dow Jones; Bancroft family still balking.
The Associated Press reports that News Corp. has reached a "tentative" deal to buy Dow Jones, which owns The Wall Street Journal:
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. reached a tentative agreement to buy Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co., the Journal reported Tuesday, but he must still win over the company’s controlling shareholders.
News Corp. already owns Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel, The Times in the United Kingdom, the New York Post, the Twentieth Century Fox movie and TV studio, and MySpace.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
It's OK to be bad sometimes....
Absolutely. See GeekLawyer, "R-rated", on this subject. Which brings us to "ratings" for blawgs. Is this a joke? And if not, are we all daft? Are we just afraid of everything? Of what people think? Or are children, nuns and PC weenies really visiting legal weblogs these days? We think not. Who is this generation's non-moralizing Alan Watts, anyway? Talk hard/write angry. Avoid separateness--especially if you're a lawyer. Think art, not law. Or at least listen to the MC5, who are looking at you just before your big opening argument. Or before you go to church. Do something now--or lose yourself.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2007
Texas Big-Beat Blawg Review #117
WAC? loves Texans, having been forced to associate with some really great and quite bright ones while a student in Durham, North Carolina long ago. Texans taught us how to eat really hot food--and to dance wildly for no reason. Jamie Spencer, at Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer, a very fine blog, did the hosting honors this week at Blawg Review #117. It's up right now. And he did not disappoint. A lawyer's lawyer, Jamie refreshes Blawg Review with a much-needed swim through U.S. criminal law and procedure. Remember that river?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2007
Booze, bulls and gypsies*
PAMPLONA, SPAIN (AP) - Saturday "was the worst day for injuries in the nine-day San Fermin festival."
Police arrested 125 people during this year’s reverie, compared to 60 last year, the government said. Forty-seven arrests were for theft, with the majority of pickpocketers coming from one country: Romania.
*Or the fascinating and exotic Roma, for PC types.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)
Gen-X Contest: and the Winner is....
A gentleman named Ray Steib, who wins for attitude and phrasing.
"How many Generation X associate lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
Answer: "That is an impossible question, because screwing in a light bulb is manual labor and Gen X associates would rather sit in the dark than get up off their lazy asses and get their hands dirty."
Well done, Ray. (Pat Lamb was runner-up with: "One. The person holds the light bulb while the universe revolves around them.")
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2007
Saturday's Lord Charon QC--and GeekWerewolfBarrister
As usual London's Charon QC (pronounced "Karen") is smokin'. And drinking Spanish wine grown at high altitudes. Visit him in the Diary Room. Erudite, funny, creative, favorite of The London Times. Not another "poofy Brit southerner". Warning: may be even more cryptic than traveling WAC?....And while you're on the other side of The Big Pond, visit Charon's evil twin GeekLawyer and read "Wigs All Around". On a roll these days, GL's mad, bad and dangerous to solicitors. Feisty, smart, angry. We're deathly afraid of his new co-blogger, Becky. Nonetheless, DH threw rocks at her window last night....Hull McGuire in U.S. wants to try a case with GL, just to savor the brutality of it all--even though GL hates "punters" (clients).
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2007
Headed east, cryptically, sort of.
To see Lon Chaney walkin' with the Queen. To work, learn, play; Pump Court, Kent, Calais. To ramble, kick out the jams and testify.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:59 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2007
Redux: Do you need to "like" your client to do a good job?
Answer: In our firm, the answer is absolutely yes. Color us spoiled, and even unlawyer-like--but we refuse to represent clients we do not like and respect. Screw the money. We'd rather sell women's shoes, be full-time lobbyists, or take up careers as street people.
Only a few books I can find on the subject of rendering services to customers in the business sections of Borders or Barnes & Noble ever mention the question. In the context of lawyer services, it's simply this: except for some court appointments and pro bono engagements, what if we only chose to represent clients we liked?
By "like", I mean it loosely: to derive for whatever reason real pleasure and satisfaction while doing legal work for a individual or organization.
My firm shies away from individuals as clients, regardless of his or her resources. We usually represent businesses. So in the case of an organization, we "like" the client because overall we somehow feel comfortable with or maybe even admire the personality, business culture or goals of that client, personally like/admire the client reps and general counsel, or both.
My firm "likes" business clients which are experienced, sophisticated users of legal services. When we perform well, the client appreciates us and signals that appreciation. So then we like the client even more, and want to do an even better job or keep doing the good job we are doing so we can derive more real pleasure from the engagement, and obtain more work.
As simple and as annoyingly Mr. Rogers-esque as this all sounds, we have never, ever had good long-term relationships with any organization client (1) which did not genuinely appreciate what we were doing for it or (2) which had disturbing corporate personalities (i.e., mean-spirited Rambo cultures, groups with employees given to blame-storming, or companies with disorganized, internally-uncommunicative or just plain lazy staffs.)
We rely on repeat business. For us, there's no substantial reason to accept a new engagement unless we think we might want to represent that client in the long term. For years, I often sensed before the first draft of the representation letter was done that the new client didn't fit us. Usually I couldn't articulate it--or maybe I just disliked the client rep. But because of the money or the prestige of the engagement, we took the project, and kept going after the repeat business anyway. A few years ago, we stopped doing that.
Does my attitude clash with some people's notions of real client service, duty to the profession or basic law firm economics? It sure does. And today I don't think I can practice law any other way. In the long term, having no client is better than a bad client--or one that I don't see courting down the road.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Kane on Press Releases
Tom Kane, at his consistently fine and useful Legal Marketing Blog, is right that "Press Releases Can Be An Effective Tool". And the devil is in the details. Make them short, sweet and different. Our firm has used them for 15 years. For us they are most effective in reminding existing clients who we like and want to keep--always our number one marketing targets--that we are "there". Make you a bet: if you send a good press release to ten good clients, you will get a phone call from one of them, even if it's just to say hello.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2007
Sensitive Litigation Moment No. 17: Informal Discovery.
Twenty years ago, James McElhaney, a gifted lawyer, writer and teacher of trial tactics, and the ABA Litigation Section, first published McElhaney's Trial Notebook, now in its fourth edition. Discovery, McElhaney notes, is a good way to learn what a witness will say, or to bind a party or witness to a particular version of the facts. However, "it is a very inefficient way to get information." There are lots of investigation ideas in McElhaney's book, but they all involve simple curiosity and do-it-yourself "trolling" for information the trial lawyer gets first-hand on his or her own. Next time a new case begins,
resist rushing into written discovery and depositions. Step back from the discovery routine--you'll get into that bubble soon enough--and learn a few things on your own. Just as witnesses say unexpected and even startling things when they testify, useful and even surprising facts are available about opposing parties through the Internet, court files, published cases, D&B reports, news archives and business libraries. These inexpensive but ignored sources are often inconsistent with information parties will give about themselves in formal discovery.
Posted by JD Hull at 03:35 AM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2007
e. e. blawg review #116: Corporate Blawg UK
Here, and it even came out a day early. Blimey. A fine and innovative job despite prominent mention of WAC?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:04 PM | Comments (0)
July 07, 2007
Live Earth: Saving planet, WAC? duck-walks soulfully in Chicago Marriott; hotel staff upset.
Hull McGuire is torn. We love people, animals, plants and the outdoors. Yet with one notable exception, we are mostly Republican types with several longstanding industrial clients; for money, the more the better, we represent and defend entities which "spill and/or emit things" into the environment. We think it's challenging and interesting work. We don't care what you think about it.
You just never know these days what humans who are lawyers will do. But no matter what your politics are on the environment, do tune into Live Earth tonight or on encore nights on Sundance or Bravo! or any number of cable channels. Concerts are in New York (well, Giants Stadium in NJ, where Al Gore appeared), London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg, Johannesburg and Rio de Janeiro.
At the London event, Madonna in a semi-formal black dress jumped up and down with an electric guitar. In New York, and even better, Sting and The Police did "Roxanne", which for a while (under-35 Americans need to know this) replaced the "Star Spangled Banner" as the national anthem ("You don't have to put on a red light..."). I understand that WAC?, while working on a Clean Air Act permit, and very moved, duck-walked for a good 20 minutes in his hotel room until asked to stop.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Just bulls, religion and middle-age angst
Fiesta de San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain, or the running of the bulls, dates back to 1591. But Hemingway made it way cool in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. I've never been to it, but people I really like swear by the week-long festival and the steady intake of Rioja and beer coupled with mystique.
Despite the hype, I am intrigued. Folks from all over the world--the kind, like WAC?'s Holden Oliver, who've given up all hope of ever behaving normally in public--go there every year to be menaced and chased by mean, fast and heavy semi-feral animals through the streets. Or to see a possible goring. It is, they say, the Spanish version of the Kentucky Derby, or the Hells' Angels Labor Day Picnic.
Anyway, it began today and continues until July 14. Only 13 people have been killed since records were first kept starting in 1924. Just 13. Sign me up for 2008. Another milestone birthday that year. WAC? may just go to Spain and do himself in.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2007
Real Lawyering: Flash vs. Hard Work--and Clients
Here's a you-must-read gem by Carolyn Elefant at her "beat" over at Legal Blog Watch: "How Law Students Become Lawyers".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2007
Holden's "Mr. Rogers" Contest: A Cry for Help...
Please enter Holden Oliver's damn Gen X light bulb contest. New deadline is July 9. And for inspiration see from today's WSJ "Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2007
Happy 4th--and what's a "head boy" , anyway?
On Independence Day, Americans celebrate their world-changing split from Great Britain, which arguably began in earnest on July 4, 1776. Americans and Brits, who share folkways, institutions and language, have been on speaking terms continuously for nearly 200 years, since 1814.
The rub: when we do talk to each other, there are two different English-es at play.
So in case you need it--and you will if you're a Yank who does business globally--see the English-to-American Dictionary, courtesy, once again, of our patriotic Blawg Review. NOTE: There are more differences and surprises than you might think. For instance, if you're on the blower with a good punter back in Blighty, you don't want to faff around and cock it up. Know what we mean?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2007
It's that Muscle Boutique thing again...
While WAC? still thinks that solos face a tough time obtaining and keeping Fortune 500 clients (minimum: you need 3 full-time higher-end well-paid lawyers--each king-hell crazy about client service), we do like Susan Cartier Liebel's post "Solo and Small Firms Should Go In For the Kill", which echos some of our own usual rants re: firms between 5 and 100 lawyers serving clients normally represented by much larger law firms. And we love Susan's pluck. Her post turns on yesterday's Patrick Lamb discussion on GC dissatisfaction. Hat tip to the mysterious Editor of Blawg Review.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2007
Nearly Legal in London (Blawg Review #115)
Today from across the pond we have a first-rate Blawg Review (#115) hosted by London-based Nearly Legal. There's some nice coverage of both US and UK blogs here. In closing, NL wishes American readers a happy Independence Day, and: "if you feel capable of happiness, and to the rest of us, pull your socks up and stop grumbling". Quite right.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)